‘As a university with a broad academic discipline we have all sorts of facilities, consumables and equipment so we worked very closely with the Lancashire Resilience Forum which is a group of private and public sector leaders who look at the potential threats to the region from a technological or business disruption angle.
‘They were mobilised fairly quickly when COVID hit. At the university, we had masks, gloves, gowns ventilator equipment, fume cupboards which could be useful for the NHS or other services. We made that offer and the army came on site to pick up a range of clinical and research equipment to help fight the virus, while we had various NHS trusts taking us up on our offer of PPE.
‘Our engineering technicians worked with some of our academics to produce parts for ventilators and masks used by the NHS. Our fashion and textile technicians worked with our lecturers to produce gowns by the hundreds for various NHS trusts. Our scientific support technicians followed the WHO guidelines on hand sanitiser and produced over 120 litres of it for care homes and the NHS around the region.
